Daily (more or less) commentary on news and events in Carbondale and the Southern Illinois region, with occasional excursions to other locales.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

City Council Meeting

Which I missed as I got there just as Mayor Cole closed the meeting. Did see Councilman Jack on crutches. In case, you're wondering he was out running with his dog at night, missed a step and severely sprained his ankle.

Did get the opportunity to speak with City Manager Alan Gill for a few minutes. Guess he took pity on me because I got there late as he did pass along some info about the storm status.

Debris pick up has been extended through the next day or two. City employees have gone through neighborhoods and created a list of properties that still have debris piled up. As they sweep through the neighborhoods and clean up the piles, that address gets checked off and won't be picked up again.

The city has hauled away about 200,000 tons of trees and other vegetable matter. That's enough material to cover SIUC's football field seventeen stories high. The city got a burn exemption from the state because there is no practical way for the city to dispose of it any other way before it becomes a health hazard. Cost of the cleanup to the city right now is about $3 million.

A mpa on display somewhere in city hall shows property damage throughout the city, ranging from red (total loss) to green (minimal or no damage). The only red area is on the north side of the city, near the Crossings trailer park. Mr. Gill wasn't certain if that was an area with anumber of trailers that had been destroyed or a large peice of property with only one building on it. Interestingly, the map shows that most property damage took place on the south side of C'dale, though you'd think, as Mr. Gill did that, based on trees down, the north side got hit worse. Apparently, the trees didn't do nearly as much damage in the northwest as the winds did to buildings on the south, SIUC in particular.

1 comment:

I wish I could undstand the urgency to clear away and get rid of all this wood as if it were plague corpses. But million of trees lay peacefully rotting in the woods of southern Illinois without being a "health hazard," and that's a great way to get rid of it--let bacteria and fungi munch away. Burning just pollutes the air converts all that carbon straight to greenhouse gas.